Article: https://pitchfork.com/features/song-by-song/stephen-malkmus-traditional-techniques-interview/
Understandably so, all news is currently focused on COVID-19. I’ve obviously read and watched an awful lot of coronavirus coverage over the past week(s), but I wouldn’t consider any of it to be the best things I’ve read. I don’t read about the pandemic for pleasure, I read about it because I can’t avoid it and I, like so many others, am fairly frightened. But a few days ago, I stumbled across this feature of former Pavement singer-songwriter Stephen Malkmus on Pitchfork, where he discusses each track on his new album Traditional Techniques in depth.
Pitchfork features on artists are generally quite good, and I especially enjoy their articles of this type, where they have artists speak directly about specific tracks on an album. These articles don’t always focus on artist’s new albums either, as sometimes they will have an artist go back and dive into an album from their past – I can remember an outstanding article like this from a few years back where Paige Hamilton discussed his band Helmet’s critically acclaimed 1994 album Betty. These articles provide fans with a unique and in-depth look into the artist’s process, influences, and personal meanings behind their tunes. As a musician myself, I find this to be particularly interesting and relatable. While I am not a huge fan of Malkmus or Pavement, I still found this article to be very interesting. The lede set up the feature quite well, it described Malkmus and what he was doing, how he was acting, and the environment/setting during the interview. This provides the reader with a mental image of the tone and atmosphere of the interview and allows the reader to connect more easily with the material. The lede and nutgraf of the article, while brief, also personified Malkmus – specifically by how the writer describes him eating a muffin while lying on a couch.
After three short paragraphs, the Q and A portion of the article begins. It is laid out very simply and clearly: The song title is listed (starting with track 1 and following the tracklist to the final song) and then the interviewer asks a question about the song and Malkmus answers it. Pitchfork’s questions are in bold, and Malkmus’ answers are not, making it very easy to read and understand. The article provides YouTube links of music videos of some songs from the album as well, so the viewer can listen for what is being discussed in the article.
Overall, this is a lighthearted article that provides fans with an inside look into Malkmus’ new music and what it means to him and what he intends for it to mean to his listeners. It is a good example of multimedia elements aiding in a story. The music videos provided in the article not only allow the reader to hear the songs being discussed, but it may encourage people unfamiliar with the artist’s music to give it a try. I think articles like this are a great thing for both the music and journalistic worlds: They allow the musical artist a platform to answer questions that fans might have that wouldn’t be answered otherwise and, assuming the writer/interviewer is good, allows the artist to think of or address things they wouldn’t typically otherwise. Deep dives into an artist’s personal experiences with their music brings their fans closer to the music and humanizes artists who often seem larger than life.
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